“The reefer ship carried grapes from Afghanistan through Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port to India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as Nhava Sheva,” he explained.
Noting that the construction of the main container site of Chabahar’s Shahid Beheshti Port, with a capacity of 150 refrigerated containers for loading and unloading of perishables, is underway, Aqaei said, “Currently, Shahid Beheshti Port is equipped with a temporary cold storage unit with a capacity of 16 refrigerated containers.”
Earlier in February, in a ceremony attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the neighboring country started sending goods to India through Chabahar Port from Zaranj in Nimroz Province in western Afghanistan. The cargo contained 570 tons of commodities carried by 23 trucks, according to Financial Tribune.
The first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port was inaugurated in December 2017 by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan.
The inauguration of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of a total of five development phases) has tripled Chabahar's capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country). It allows the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT) and increase India’s connectivity with Afghanistan.